Monthly Archives: April 2008

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at this point, i think the dark knight should win just because maggie gyllenhaal is in it. yeah, baby!

anyways, i hope real superheroes board the trains in singapore. had a very bad experience this morning. it’s ironical when the announcer keep blurping “please mind the platform gap” bazillions times, when the operator blindly closed the doors 30 seconds prior opening it. didn’t the operator know it’ll take at least a few minutes for the passengers to board and alight at the same time, in the middle of rush hour? they’re practically hundreds of us trying to mish mash through the crowd and before people can step into and out of the train, the door shuts down, leaving some people sandwiched between the doors!

if you keep telling us to inform the authorities if you see any suspicious person or articles [i terribly hate that on-board video], we will take action if the operators do this again. seems you are more dangerous than the suspected ah beng carrying the big bag in that video.

Taxi to the Dark Side is an Academy Award winning 2007 documentary film directed by American filmmaker Alex Gibney, and produced b Taxi to the Dark Side is an Academy Award winning 2007 documentary film directed by American filmmaker Alex Gibney, and produced by Eva Orner.[1]

The film focuses around the controversial death in custody of an Afghan taxi driver named Dilawar.[2] Dilawar was beaten to death by American soldiers while being held in extra judicial detention at the Bagram Air Base.

Taxi to the Dark Side also goes on to examine America’s policy on torture and interrogation in general, specifically the CIA’s use of torture and their research into sensory deprivation. There is description of the opposition to the use of torture from its political and military opponents, as well as the defense of such methods; the attempts by Congress to uphold the standards of the Geneva Convention forbidding torture; and the popularization of the use of torture techniques in shows such as 24

times like these, i always keep reminding myself if i am living in a sane society or otherwise.

i can’t believe they voted fro hrc in majority.

i can’t believe people can still be fooled by middle roadness.

i can’t believe in an age where information is so abundant to be understood, people are fearful for the sake of fear and not wanting to study further.

i can’t believe. and further on.

what is wrong. what is the main argument. what drives them.

i can’t think of more but looking from the outside, i’ve always believed majority do not want change and prefer to be confined in their own shell. this, my friend is the main corruption of the world today. not oil. not rice. not war.

change. people are afraid just simply and it is pitiful to see when things are so abundant and the irony of the present culture.

but let us not assumed this the day to feel neglected.

it was glad today that i stepped onto hmv, after bongs of time spent not toiling around it.

for, it comes to a delightful surprise, hmv actually sells books! since when, i am not certain. but the titles, for the moment me guess, are emotionally delightful. and the price! touching from a distance and the melancholy death of oyster boy – 2 titles! – for 20 bucks! happy camper i am.

but then, if you are still inspired to console me further after hearing the heart-breaking news, you can still get me this, for i can…

unless you’ve been living on mars, you should’ve heard by now about the gahmen’s report on that msk’s escape. my reaction? it is so astoundingly stupid that the reasons laid out were beyond belief. and for someone who eats on conspiracy theories, something else fishy must’ve happened to msk, else not the excuses and reasonings would have made much more sense.

and someone reflected that he was disappointed towards the opposition who didnot have the wit to question wks. true enough, those guys have to learn to ask better questions in order not to make a fool of themselves. they should’ve learn from talkingcock instead and asked these questions to grill on this incident:-

With seemingly every modern product associated with a celebrity, most would agree that today’s world is over-saturated with product endorsements….At New Balance we strongly believe that the real “heroes” of our brand are the products themselves, not a single celebrity or athletic endorser. That’s why New Balance adheres to a unique “Endorsed By No One” philosophy.

in the world of huge capitalism, we often find ourselves bombarded with advertisements telling us about this product and that. some worked, most don’t. and as time goes by, we know on the sly tactics these advertisements do to us. we have grown a lot in maturity and intelligence , and thus it challenges the advertisers to create better ways of communications to communicate its message to us.

we have grown to like some of the new ways it has shown to us. i’ve especially find the moove cow placards planted on open spaces as a brilliant form. it engages the viewer to look deeper and fantasizes our thoughts to find out more. i can’t put a finger to more examples, but over the years, i’ve learnt to appreciate greatly at innovative ways the message is being laid out. and it is not without a surprise that most of these do not have celebrity endorsements.

endorsements by celebrities, famous or not, leaves a sour taste in me. most of the time in my observant, the focus of the message is more towards the identity of the person rather than the product itself. [at the rate it is going, if i see jack neo shouting “vacuum here and wipe here…simperrrrr!” one more time, i will gladly crush any mitsubishi’s highest grade energy save air cons to the ground.] consumers are not fools, and in this day and age, we are not blinded by the mere presence of the celebrity to convince us on the product no matter how strong the “herding” mentality drives human conditions.

i was on my way back to home, and in my normal route will pass by the bus stop. and in the country i live in where every place of high human density is whore-lised for advertisements, stands the ubiquitous huge sign board, which amazingly still survives even though beforehand there were complains that the boards can block the view of the incoming buses.

now these boards used to have interesting adverts. i was particularly interested in the “anything” drink campaign where they’ll put suggestive ladies or old woman gazing “anything” to me. it may sound corny or even cliche, but it does provoke curiosity as to what the message it is trying to convey.

the board looks bright and white with a “new moon” logo standing tall above the perimeter. i don’t indulge in traditional chinese aphrodisiacs, but i know that the company is famous for its canned abalones. and yes, i think it was fann wong who popularized its produce. on this particular advert, i see 2 students in their uniforms promoting its new product. these 2 students apparently are top students in the 2007 gce ‘o’ level examinations. and the slogan, along the lines of it, says that they scored brilliantly due to new moon and its apparent brain booster.

now, on any given day, i would have just shrugged off this message. unfortunately, it did not today.

the advert, in my opinion, is so wrong on so many levels! how is it appropriate that the company endorses these 2 students to tell the public that the reason why they scored the grades is due to their product? now, these adverts are only put up recently, so how is it proven that these students have taken their product at the end of 2007 and thus it is justifiable to inform the public that they are there because of it?

now before i am doomed to hell for being petty for berating this small issue, i will like to state this. i do not care about this product. it does not serve me, nor am i indebted to it. and we all know before this, brands essence of chicken has been passed down to generations for its “ability to keeping our mind sharp”.

i am more particularly concerned about this advert due to the fact that this can influence parents, whose perspective of giving its best to their children may succumbed to this tactic. its a hot button issue and this tactic may work without much realization. have the parents realised if these students have actually taken it before the exams? have the parents realised that by putting “top students parading a product” can invoke sentiments to their children? have they thought that because of this, students may aspire to become a top student in the mould that they can endorse a product one day? have they realised that this advert can induce extra pressure that they have to produce to become one of the model students to be publicised to the public? i can only imagine, a wide one at that, but i do not want to see a day when a student tells his / her peers that they want to score high marks just so that they can become a minor celebrity.

and what about the model students themselves? is it legal in anyway to model themselves to endorse? is the school allowed to be advertised for a product? from my stand of view, i don’t find it ethical in any ways to portray any commercialization in the realm of the school’s colors. a school is an institution to induce knowledge, not to convey profits for any organisation. [but if the school is fine with this publicity stunt, why not it change its uniforms and plaster brands all over, just to what it has been done on racing jerseys.in that way, companies will gladly jump into the bandwagon and they can sponsor the students as their walking signboards.]

i have to admit i cannot express well, but i need to express this. let’s put to an end to celebrity endorsement students. students, young ones, are to what they are – young, naive, energetic and full of future. we cannot burden them with more pompous endorsements. we have students as young as 9 years old confessing to their friends that they want to commit suicide because their grades are not as good as their peers. we should support them, not segregate them. not portraying elitism, but to convey inspiration [not by endorsements].

how we should do it? i don’t know but let’s put a stop to celebrating top students per se. as for the rest, i can only hope companies can learn a thing or two from new balance’s philosophy.

it has to be confessed the main reason why we went cycling on weekends is because we are bored to death due to the lack of activities. i have begun to hate shopping, movies are getting more expensive [plus we can get free shows!], eating out is a bane fighting against the crowd, the beach is over polluted with malibu wannabees and yeah. there’s not much to do to get your mind and body working on a weekend.

so we made cycling as a conclusion after much persuasion as you see, sarip’s blind as a bat [?] and thus he cannot differentiate terrains well when he is going at speed. don’t believe him? this is a guy who trips going down the stairs just because he thought that the ground is already leveled. and he has fallen down the stairs of overhead bridges too. now don’t snigger!